A traveling photographer should always have a camera with him, even though sometimes it gets awkward.  They are heavy, expensive and sometimes you just want to get away from your work.  That is why I just love my iPhone.  The newer iPhones, the 5S and the 6 have an excellent camera built right in.  I was boating on the Old Pearl River in Louisiana, and ran into the unexpected.  A swimming wild hog, part of a colony of twenty or so that have populated parts of the Honey Hole Swamp on the Old Pearl River.  It was a picture that had to be taken, and the iPhone worked just fine.

The Ghost Fleet of the National Naval Reserve Fleet anchored in the James River at Newport News.  Nine ships are left from more than 60, mostly built before 1985 and containing asbestos and other hazardous materials that make them unsuitable for man made reefs and expensive to decommission.  Navigation within 500ft of the ship, or between them is prohibited and the area is patrolled by the Cost Guard.  Some of the ships date from a time when my father was a director at Military Sealift Command.  Supposedly the Reserve Fleet would be used in time of national emergency to transport cargos and these ships could be readied within 30 days.  At one time the nuclear freighter Savannah was moored with this fleet but was decommissioned in 2006.

Leaving the annual James River Foundation lawn party at Westover Plantation in a classic flatbottomed skiff made a fantastic waterscape.  As a reminder to myself, I brought my GoPro with me because I had hoped to take some interior photos of Westover, which I did, but also because of a moment like this.  My grandfather was a Virginian and dressed exactly like this, whatever the weather.

I must have seen B.B. King play over ten time over the years.  Mostly because he did free concents in the DC area, usually at American University.  I got to see him play with the Allman Brothers on their first concert after the death of guitarist, Duane Allman.  It was always a pleasure.  This time on Saturday 8/21/2004, I got paid to photograph B.B. King,  still going strong at age 78 as he performs on the Riversplash Stage at the Arch grounds.  He played sitting down, but was just as great.  He will be sorely missed.

Catching up with some of my work from over the winter.  A pleasure to photograph Ameren's Washington DC lobbyist, the aptly named Joe Power.  A great guy, beloved of his staff and with a wonderfully apt name.  As someone who cannot resist asking the obvious I asked Joe if any one ever commented about his oddly appropraite moniker.  "When I was a utility regulator, I never, ever heard that. Not once.  I think they were afraid of offending me.  First day on the job as a lobbyist for Ameren, I heard it three times."